The National Museum of the Pacific War, Nov 30, 2010

Today was our day to visit the remodeled Museum.  The admission of $12 for me and $10 for Bob (he is a senior) got us tickets good for 48 hours.  You follow a maze through newly done exhibits.  Not much of what we had remembered when we volunteered here in Dec 07-Feb 08 was still there.  I enjoyed the new displays, loved hearing the snippets from veterans telling their memories.

This is the upper portion of a door from the USS Arizona superstructure.  The visible dark line is from the fuel floating on the water after the attack.  Above the oil line see the egg-shaped hole was cut by divers to see if there were any survivors inside this compartment.

This fellow was catching his 40 winks.  No, it is not Bob.

 

Thought this collector card from bubblegum was interesting.

 

 

 

 

Here I am taking a photo of a “Val” the Japanese Dive Bomber.  It is now on display inside the Museum. When we were here in ‘08 it was in storage just out in front of where we parked the coach.

This is a Fat Man bomb casing for the atomic bomb dropped over Nagasaki, August 9, 1945, it now resides inside the remodeled museum.

In 2008 it was outside near the Combat Zone.

See the “Top Secret” stamp marked out.

We are now in the Combat Zone, here is the TBM Avenger.

Next the PT Boat.

Then the redesigned fighting area.  They were working on this area when we were here before.

Slight delay for our trip to Johnson City, Tx, Nov 29, 2010

This is never a good sign.  Bob went to start the Explorer this morning and all he heard was a couple of unhealthy sounds.   He thought it was the battery (only 18 months old).  Since we are parked in front of the coach, we can’t use the coach to get a jump, so Bob saw the RVer next door, asked him and soon he was pulled up in front of the Explorer.  He was quite willing, but not so able.  At this point another RVer came by for a garbage run and came up with the perfect solution, use his portable jump starter.  Soon I hear the Explorer burst with life.  All the fellows had smiles, lots of arms waving.  A good time was being had by all!

Now, guess what Bob wants – a portable jump starter.  So off the Napa we went.  We are now the proud owners of a Proseries DSR Jump Starter/DC Power Source.  Now picture this, he leaves me in the car, running as we didn’t want to turn it off just in case it would not start again, while he goes in and does his shopping.

Then back to the coach, to charge the Jump Starter, so we will be ready.  By the time we made it back the Explorer did start when it was turned off. 

Knowing the Explorer restarted we resumed our drive to Johnson City, which is about 30 miles east of Fredericksburg.

LBJ’s boyhood home is in Johnson City.

All the stocking were hung by the chimney with care at his home.

This longhorn didn’t want me any closer than I was, that’s fine with me!

A windmill decked out for the holidays.

Persimmon Cookies

1 cup sugar (I used Splenda)

1/2 c butter or marjarine (I used ICBINB)

1 egg

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)

1 tsp nutmeg (I use freshly ground, Bob does this)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1 cup nuts, walnuts or pecans

1/2 c raisins, optional (I omit)

1 cup pureed persimmon pulp

1 tsp soda

Cream sugar and butter together.  Beat in egg.  Mix flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves together.  Stir in nuts and raisins if used.  Puree persimmon pulp until smooth and stir in baking soda.  Add persimmon mixture and dry ingredients alternately to creamed butter and sugar mixture,  mixing well after each addition.  Drop batter by heaping teaspoons on greased baking sheet.  Bake 350 degrees 15 minutes.   Yield:  about 2 doz.

I use the convection oven in the coach, so I bake less time, around 12-13 minutes.

This recipe came from the Sacramento Bee, Sunday November 18, 1984

Our Duck, our topper and some sites near Fredericksburg, Nov 25-28, 2010

Thursday, Nov 25th

On Thanksgiving Day morning our next door RV neighbor came over and told Bob one of our slide toppers was loose.  This is the second one to have this same thing happen to it.  This time, Bob was able to take the topper off without releasing the slide tension spring, so putting it back on after being repaired should be much easier.

You can see here the thread securing the seam holding the bead which holds the topper in the channel just failed, probably from the sun.  The fabric looks okay, so this time hopefully we can just get all the edges restitched.

Our Thanksgiving Duck feast, I wasn’t sure if I would like duck, but it was very good.  All the meat is like turkey dark meat, nice and moist.

Friday, Nov 26th

It seems as if everyone and their brother came to Fredericksburg, the streets are full.  We did use some back roads and found an area to walk around.  Found this small cabin called the Pape Log Cabin.  This tiny cabin is one of the oldest structures in Fredericksburg, built in 1846.

St Mary’s Catholic Church steeples rival some we saw in Europe.

I  loved this sculpture  of St Francis of Assisi in their courtyard.

 

 

 

 

 

Sat. Nov 27th

Bob spent most of the day Saturday working on our coach’s sound system.  He was trying to get the sound from the new HDTV to come through the ceiling speakers.  At the end of the day, he had succeeded, but don’t ask him how or what he did.  Thankfully it ALL went back into the cabinet.

 

Sun. Nov 28th

Today after church we visited the Sauer-Beckmann Living Farm, one of favorite places to visit.  It is a working 1918 farm located on the same grounds as the LBJ Ranch.  Daily chores range from milking every day, making  fresh cheese and butter and doing laundry with a washboard on Mondays.  Depending what season you visit, the garden may be being planted, or harvested and canned, or one of the animals being butchered.

The grater is used to shave the soap into the washtub.

Their garden produced well over the summer.

Freshly made lye soap drying.

This is their kitchen table with this morning’s milk covered with a screen to keep flying critters out.  The milk will end up a few days from now being made into some fresh cheese.

Then, it was back to the coach to make a double batch of Persimmon Cookies.  They are delicious!  If anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I will post it.

Happy Thanksgiving–Fredericksburg, TX Nov 25, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010 is in Fredericksburg, TX. No turkey this year, but we are roasting a duck. Before the duck gets roasted, Bob will be removing the duck's legs so we can make, later, the famous French dish called Cassoulet. When in France a couple of years ago, we fell in love with this dish – duck legs, sausage, bacon, white cannelini beans, and veggies.

We wish all our family and friends a Wonderful and Peaceful day. Also Happy Birthday to our son-in-law Ed.

Arrival in Fredericksburg, Nov 22-24, 2010

Since we knew we would be landed in Fredericksburg for a week, so had all our mail sent here.  Mail from our home address, new LNB for Directv, two ballasts for our overhead lights, replaced link to Bob hearing air from Zounds, two tupperwear water bottles from our daughter Jenny along with the titles to our vehicles.  The titles will be necessary when we change our domicile to Texas.

I am sure we will perfect our traveling method of securing our new LCD HDTV, but this worked well for our drive from Odessa to Fredericksburg.

Even though we had visited the LJB Ranch before, it was nice to see to again.  This entrance is not used by the public.

The two taller stones near the center are for Lyndon B. Johnson (36th President) and Lady Bird (Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson).

When Lady Bird died in 2007,  the Texas White House where she was living, was then open for tours.  Nice tour, but no photography was permitted.

This two year old bull was named Onward, a descendent from the original LBJ Herford 1960’s blood line.

Odessa and Midland, TX Nov 18-21, 2010

These contraptions started to sprout along the road on our short drive from Pecos to Odessa/Midland area.  Our home while we are here is the Midessa Oil Patch RV Park is located midway between each.

George, Barbara and infant son George W. Bush lived here in his home for about one year.

Just had to see Stonehenge again. The above photo was taken on the campus of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

The above photo is from the real Stonehenge in England (taken 7/13/09).

We are finding lots of things in Texas are bigger.

I finally gave in and let Bob pick out his new 32” LED TV to replace the 27” one in the RV.

Here is the new one working, Bob wanted to make sure we could get it hooked up and it worked with the Directv.

Bob did some framing behind the TV and the new swivel mount works great.  We just now have to come up with a way to use bungees to secure the TV when we travel.  We LOVE the quality of the picture even though we do not have any HDTV channels yet.

I am standing on the front porch of the George Bush family home in Midland.

The Odessa Meteor Crater is slowly filling itself in. 

I am standing at the current bottom of this crater.  (The salmon color on the above map.)

Tomorrow we are headed to Fredericksburg for Thanksgiving week.

Please keep my sister in your prayers, she starts chemotherapy tomorrow.